Does secret graveyard contain remains of missing women?

Accused murderer's run in with journalist0:30

Kylr Yust, the man arrested in connection to the disappearance of Jessica Runions, will be spending his birthday in the Jackson County Jail. Yust also had some interesting responses to Richard Sharp KSHB's questions about Runions' whereabouts. Courtesy: 41 Action News/KSHB-TV

April 6th 2017

2 years ago

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Kylr Yust allegedly told at least two girlfriends that he had killed people. Picture: MySpaceSource:Supplied

HORROR details are emerging about the background of a man linked to the mysterious disappearances and suspected murders of two young women in America’s midwest.

Kylr Yust, 28, was dating Kara Kopetsky, 17, when the schoolgirl vanished without a trace from Belton, Missouri, in 2007 and was the last person seen with Jessica Runions, 21, before she went missing from the same town in September last year.

On Monday, a mushroom hunter stumbled across a human skull in a rural area south of Belton and investigators found a second skull nearby on Tuesday.

The bones are currently undergoing forensic analysis but police have informed the families of both Kara and Jessica that they believe there is a high chance the remains belong to the missing pair.

Jessica was last seen leaving a party with Yust, a childhood friend of her boyfriend Jaxon Mallett, in south Kansas City on September 8 last year. Her burned car was found abandoned in a tunnel two days later.

Days later, detectives charged Yust with “knowingly burning” the vehicle after he was found at his grandfather’s home with burns and scratches to his face and hands. He denied the charge during a recent court appearance. He has not been charged over her disappearance.

Yust also has been questioned over the unsolved case of missing teenager Kara Kopetsky, his ex-girlfriend. The 17-year-old failed to return from Belton High School in May 2007 — one week after applying for a restraining order against a then 18-year-old Yust.

In her April 30, 2007 application, Kara alleged Yust had been physically and emotionally abusive throughout their nine-month relationship, describing instances where he had stalked, kidnapped and restrained her and other occasions when he had choked her and threatened to cut her throat.

“I’m unsure what he will do next, because the abuse has gotten worse over time,” the application read, according to court documents obtained by local media.

A hearing was scheduled for May 10, 2007 but the teenager vanished six days before she was due to front court. Investigators repeatedly grilled Yust over Kara’s case but were unable to turn up any evidence linking him to her disappearance.

Belton Police inspect Jessica Runions’s car, found burned and abandoned in a tunnel two days after she vanished after a party she attended with her boyfriend Jaxon Mallett and his friend Kylr Yust. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

‘I’VE KILLED PEOPLE BEFORE ... I WILL KILL YOU’

In 2011, Yust, then 22, was charged with two counts of animal abuse involving the killing of three kittens belonging to another girlfriend, who was 18 and pregnant with twins by him at the time.

Prosecutors alleged Yust smashed one of the kittens against a bathroom floor by the head until it died and then drowned two others in a local creek two weeks later.

A week before the animal abuse charges, Yust was placed on two years probation after pleading guilty to beating and choking the same girlfriend. During that assault, Yust allegedly told the girl he had murdered other people and fed their body parts to pigs on a family farm.

“I’ve killed people before. Even ex-girlfriends out of sheer jealousy. I will kill you,” Yust allegedly told the girlfriend, according to a police report filed at the time.

“My family has a ranch with pigs that will eat anything, including bones. If you scream again, I will kill you, faster than you can let another scream out of your throat.”

Another former girlfriend, Katelynn Farris, recently claimed that Yust confessed to killing Kara. However Yust wrote off the allegation as drunken rambling on his part.

In 2014 Yust served two years of a 45 month sentence for drug trafficking and stealing while employed as an apprentice at a tattoo parlour. He was released in early 2016.

At his sentencing hearing, his lawyer told the judge that Yust suffered from post traumatic stress disorder thanks to a horrible childhood. He was raised by his grandfather after his drug addicted parents walked out on him as a boy and only met his mother for the first time as a teenager, the court heard.

Ex-girlfriend Katelynn Farris has told police that Kylr confessed to murdering Kara while they were dating. Picture: FacebookSource:Facebook

Suspected double killer Kylr Yust in 2011 after his arrest for assaulting his pregnant girlfriend.Source:Supplied

A screengrab of Kylr Yust in 2011 following his roadside arrest for animal abuse.Source:Supplied

Kylr Yust outside court in Kansas City, Missouri after he appeared on charges relating to the burning of Jessica Runions's car following her 2016 disappearance. Picture: SuppliedSource:Supplied

‘PUT THAT DIRT BAG AWAY FOR LIFE SO HE CAN’T HURT ANYONE AGAIN’

Kara’s family maintains they believe Yust knows what happened to her. They have kept on his case, attending all of Yust’s court hearings over the past decade in the hope he will one day crack under the pressure and reveal whatever information they believe he is hiding.

Privately, they have been terrified that another young woman would vanish in similar circumstances to Kara and in September last year those fears were realised when Jessica Runions went missing and Yust’s name came up yet again.

Yust, who had been friends with both Jessica and her boyfriend Jaxon Mallet, with whom he grew up, was the last known person to see the pretty 21-year-old alive.

As soon as she heard of the link, Kara’s mother Rhonda Beckford reached out to Jessica’s mother Jamie Runions and the pair have been working together and supporting each other for the past six months.

“I don’t think I could get through this without (the Runions) and my family and friends,” said Ms Beckford said.

“We are a team and when you have a missing child … People can say they understand how you feel but unless you have another child that’s missing, you don’t. It’s not like any other thing and it’s drawn us closer together and we are like sisters.”

After the shock discovery of two skulls in woodland this week not far from where the two girls went missing nine years apart, Ms Beckford and Ms Runions have been preparing themselves for the possibility their daughters might have been buried in the same secret graveyard.

Kara Kopetsky’s mum Rhonda Beckford (left) and Jamie Runions, mother of Jessica Runions, front a press conference on Tuesday following the discovery of two skulls which may belong to their missing daughters.Source:Supplied

Police scientists are currently trying to establish whether the skulls belong to Kara and Jessica.

“If it’s (Jessica), I’m glad she was with Kara,” Ms Runions said yesterday. “My biggest fear was that she was alone. I’m glad they were together.”

Ms Beckford said it was frustrating waiting for a positive identification on the skulls.

“(Police) brought us here because they thought there would be some new information that would come in but it just hasn’t panned out to be that way. We’re still just waiting,” she said.

“Every hour, every day, every minute, we just hope and pray those answers come in and we find our daughters and we are able to put the dirt bag (Yust) away for the rest of his life so he can’t hurt anyone else again.”

Family and friends of both woman have been searching for clues in their disappearance but have had no luck. In January this year, volunteers searching for Jessica’s body found two separate sets of human remains — neither of them belonging to Jessica or Kara — in a rural area not far from where the skulls were discovered this week.

The search for more bones was called off yesterday due to bad weather but is expected to resume later today or tomorrow.